Larian Studios' long-running Divinity series finally has a console release for its most recent grand adventure.

Septa the Ineffable may not be a giant enemy crab but you still shouldn't mess with her

Divinity: Original Sin II is the sequel to 2014's Original Sin and this Definitive Edition allows console gamers to enjoy it in all its intricate glory. For the unfamiliar, it's an overhead RPG that rewards exploration, critical thinking, smooth talking, and strategy. The latter is especially helpful within the turn-based tactical battles. You play as a gang of companions that consists of a combination of characters including the rogue elf Sebille, the lizard fighter The Red Prince, the human wayfarer Ifan Ben-Mezd, the human enchanter Lohse, the dwarf battlemage Beast, and the undead wizard Fane. The story begins with you being a prisoner on a ship as your character of choice. You soon end up on a prison island where you can meet some companions that will tag along on your quest to escape. From there, things get crazy so prepare for one memorable and unforgiving journey.

The most striking feature of Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition is just how open-ended it is. This is true with its gameplay, story progression, and almost everything about it. Nearly anything can be accomplished in multiple ways so the entire experience ends up being exceptionally immersive and highly rewarding. Even speaking to characters can result in either dishearteningly devastating or surprisingly delightful consequences. If you please someone enough through your decisions and conversational attributes, they may give you a cool item but if you piss them off, you might find yourself stuck in a brutal fight to the death. Each NPC and party member has a distinct personality which makes the world feel alive and authentic. It truly is a masterfully crafted RPG world.

There's nothing like fighting a boss only to have a Voidwoken Drillworm suddenly emerge...

To help flesh out its awe-inspiring world, the graphics are sharp and detailed. You can zoom in and out whenever you want so you can either view your surroundings or observe the characters up-close and personal. Divinity: Original Sin II's soundtrack is superb as well and feels right at home in its fantastical setting. Speaking of audio, the voice cast is phenomenal as the actors allow each character to shine in their own quirky way. Speaking of which, a lot of subject matter in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is quite dark yet there's plenty of humour that'll make you smile even while facing imminent death. This sort of levity makes the adventure all the more enjoyable.

Setting up your party is an engaging endeavour as you find yourself concentrating on improving every single intricacy of each character. Aside from levelling up (which doesn't actually happen that often), you can assign earned points to plenty of different attributes, optimize everyone's equipment, read books and such to learn new recipes and skills, craft items and equipment, and much more. This all comes together in the heat of battle. When it's one of your party members' turns, you move them to wherever you want them to go then select whichever action you want them to perform whether it's a skill, basic attack, item, etc. You only have a certain amount of Action Points that you can expend for each turn so maximizing each move is the key to success. It's satisfying stuff indeed.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the baddest Godwoken of them all?

Another area where Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition excels in is providing a vast assortment of secrets. Once, I noticed a crab running around that had the name Septa the Ineffable. Obviously, I killed it then found another crab elsewhere and he granted me an awesome shield for doing so. Wait, what? There are so many hidden areas and goodies to be uncovered which can lead to hours upon hours being spent merely wandering around while trying to think outside the box.

Although I had an undeniably phenomenal time with Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition and will likely play it through again and again, there are definitely some minor annoyances that frequently get in the way. The two that happen the most often are when you accidentally pick up a heavy useless item that you then have to navigate to in order to drop it and when the screen dims and the action stops because it has to load or save in the middle of your journey. I wish its performance was smoother in this regard and that there was a prompt before picking up a ridiculously heavy item because no one would intentionally do that regularly.

Finally, some events can be downright infuriating so if you're not saving regularly, you may be in for a devastating surprise from time to time. For the record, I get so absorbed in my games that I find myself forgetting to save. Therefore, having party members unexpectedly die from traps or accidentally making a wrong dialogue choice then pissing someone off when I intended to befriend them made me super-frustrated. Once, I saw some lightning homing in on my party and didn't think much of it then... boom! Everyone was dead. How was I supposed to know that would happen? Another time, I temporarily parted ways with a comrade then watched them walk away and die via trap. I opened my journal and lo and behold, they were permanently deceased. Screw that, dude.

The Hammer should seriously consider buying leashes for his pets

Fans of fantasy RPGs will absolutely love their time with Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition. Its unforgiving yet rewarding campaign is one of the most satisfying adventures that you'll ever partake in.

+ Open-ended adventure set in a memorable world filled with distinct personalities

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Thanks for reading my review of Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition. Feel free to ask any questions about the game or provide feedback and I'll gladly reply.

Jbumi: Hey, A.J.!!! This & DQXI finally got here Thursday. Coming off Titan Quest & its horrid save system, I decided to start Dragon Quest first (like long novels, I prefer to play/read them one at a time). Even though you're unable to save anywhere, the save spots are frequent enough, thus far, not to be annoying. I've gotten the forge & have just found the recipe for the 2nd set of crafted armor, but the game is already impressing me as the pinnacle of the series (& I loved VIII)!! Looks like I'll be dragon questing through the fall! Then it'll be on to the wide open OS2! Thanks to games like Pillars of Eternity with its freezes & glitches, I've become a compulsive saver in games that let you save anywhere - I swear it's either 30 seconds or 3 steps & I'm saving!!! You're braver than I - I hate permadeath & have no problem playing on an easier setting to avoid it!

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Hey, Jbumi! That's awesome. Mary will be reviewing Dragon Quest XI sometime soon so look out for that! She's an even bigger Dragon Quest fan than I am. It looks amazing so far. I don't mind dealing with consequences in games which is partially the reason why I don't save as often as I should but yeah, it can still be very frustrating. To be clear, I think death in Divinity: Original Sin II is only permanent when you have a party member disband then they die. Otherwise, you can use resurrection scrolls to revive people. I found myself running out of those scrolls regularly so you can imagine how delighted I was when I learned how to craft them!